As I continue to grow my 1990s provisional exhibit, studying and researching items as to postal significance and history often becomes an eye-opening experience. ‘Revelations’ is an example. As Andy Martyniuk made a point of, in Lobko·2 (isbn 1889581135) page·xi, …
‘Stories from this period in Ukrainian postal history are often humorous, but at the same time heartbreaking. For example, during the Soviet era, all post offices (including communication centers), due to their inherent power of influencing the populace, were kept under the strictest control and centrally managed to the greatest extent possible from Moscow. When domestic control ensued, Ukrainian main post office personnel were not even aware of the location and total number of post offices under their ‘control’. These circumstances resulted in smaller post offices becoming isolated and rudderless, …’.
So there was a ‘quiet chaos’ immediately upon 1990s independence. With keeping the mail flowing as the primary objective, you all too often do not see officially acknowledged procedure, notably at the more local postal levels where, clearly, the provision of official documentation was secondary at best, and, really, unnecessary toward getting on with the job.
An example of this? Revaluation of USSR stamps upon independence. As officially documented, this was a national mandate only. However, some districts, cities, and given post offices did this anyway, outside of local documentation. And the revaluations were different from the nation’s.
In a case like this, how do you determine legitimate postal material out of the given local level? Through the wisdom of local philatelists and perhaps even postal employees in a role as postal historians, and empirical accumulation of material. For example, Vadymu P. Reynush did this for three oblasts in his study ‘Каталог Почтовьіх Провизориев востока Украиньі (Донецкая, Лугаиская, и Харьковская области) 1991-1995 г. г.’, translated ‘Catalogue of Provisional Postage Stamps of Eastern Ukraine; Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv’.
This kind of study and research unveils patterns of procedure taken despite no documentation. Lobko·3 (isbn 9789668550577) notes several cases, summarized in a chart on page·64 of society Journal·116 (©2016). And of course, this summary is a ‘work in progress’ in order to determine a ‘past practice’ that then lends a credible basis of postal history for newer ‘revelations’.
This demonstrates why the publication of study and research articles are crucial, as the building blocks of shared knowledge and understanding.
Several of the items that I am about to profile in this article have already been published. However, some have not yet been outlined, primarily because I have either acquired them just recently or since I did not understand the relevance until more recently. At any rate, it is good practice to complete an inclusive article. As I go through each item, its special nature will be stated, and in as complete a manner as possible at this point in time.
If you realize that you have a similar item outlined herein, and, for example, you become aware of its importance after this, please, please, please, write an article or a ‘letter to the editor’. In part, it is in this manner that we as a society can report material, perhaps toward the eventual development of a record.
Going forward, my approach to the completion of the article is to show this material in the order that it is within my exhibit.
Domestic Regular Postcard April 29th 1992, Cities of Dunaivtsi (in Khmelnytskyi) to Chernihiv
This is my most recent acquisition, an outstanding one. My UPNS Toronto chapter will perhaps recall this postal card that I showed-and-told about earlier in 2025, where I also used a handout to help explain given details. (Sorry about that, it’s ‘the teacher’ in me.)
The magnified front origin/sending cancel date is crucial, April 29th 1992. Why? The date shows that it was domestic mail during Tariff-1, duration January 2nd to May 9th 1992, these four-plus months being the only period of time when fees for a regular postcard and cover were not identical, 40k and 50k respectively, during this modern-era provisionals period, a genre lasting into 1996.
Spotting this PC, I acquired it from a Japanese-based dealer on November 1st 2024 when I saw it on eBay. The mixed franking includes a 35k black-inked wet stamp, the original coloured 4k stationery image, and the 1k brown stamp, adding up to its required domestic regular 40k fee. The 1·kopek stamp is what makes this PC a genre provisional that fits into my exhibit, since this USSR stamp was in·era revalued by the Ukrainian government to its own denomination standard of 1·kopiyok.
It took me decades to find this example, and when I saw it on-line and then immediately purchased it, time went very very slowly for me as I waited for its arrival, and, of course, this during a postal strike. Yikes! Anyway, I finally received it in the mail on January 19th 2025.
It is the only genre PC of this type that I have ever seen anywhere, and most importantly, I am now able to fulfill this part of the postal history story within my exhibit! I have now inserted this PC into my exhibit, where I hope for it to make its début at Boston-2026 if my provisional exhibit is accepted. (This world expo that happens once every ten years takes place May 23-30, the general theme celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence.)
Non·CIS Regular Airmail Posted October 15th 1992, Cities of Yasinia to Richmond·Hill, Canada
Richmond-Hill more or less borders north-east Toronto. As part of this cover’s mixed franking 25Krb, the USSR stamps to the upper left are the oldest reported genre national revalues, year-1954 issues that are the ‘second generation’ reprints of identically-imaged 1949 issues. The face values of soviet stamps had been ‘nullified’ by the USSR government up to the end of March-1961, but this mailing was from now-independent Ukraine, not the now-defunct USSR.
Domestic Regular Mail Posted April 21st 1992, Makiivka to Kyiv; ‘ПЕРЕОЦЕНЕНO' Partnering
Despite not highlighting this cover in my exhibit, it should be. However, if you highlight too many items in order to make clear its special nature, the purpose of highlighting becomes less meaningful, not to mention ‘judgment views’ about this matter. So at some point, you have to draw some lines. Nevertheless, the history is very interesting.
This is the first ‘locally revalued’ cover that I obtained, when I ‘rolled the dice’ during 2014 by bidding on a lot of ‘ruzzian’ material being offered by ‘Ron Leith Auctions’ in British·Columbia. You are shown the cover, and the origin and destination cancels. It bears a USSR 5∙kopek stamp locally revalued to in∙era 50∙kopiyoks. Such mail is very obscure. For example, I have been told by people at our zustriches that these types of covers were initially discarded as being with invalid postage, or words to this effect. However, despite revaluation being a national-level mandate, it is now clear through empirical evidence that given locals also did this.
To my knowledge, there is no official documentation regarding local revaluation. Yet further, empirical evidence makes it quite clear that if such covers were sent outside the local area, they were sent with etiquette such as the ‘ПЕРЕОЦЕНЕНO’ (‘revalued’; Ukr 'ПЕРЕОЦIНЕНO') wet stamp, presumably in order to make outside recipient locations know. That’s why you are also shown the two cancels.
Why did the nation allow this at the local level? Who knows, one can only speculate. Perhaps it was because everyone knew that many locals had a bunch of otherwise useless stamps to in·era needs, and that the USSR unloaded another bunch of new low-value stamps on Ukraine localities just before its collapse. Interestingly though, while at the time the nation saw this 5·kopek stamp as 5·kopiyoks that would take ten of them to satisfy the regular domestic mail fee for this cover, the given locality saw it as 50·kopiyoks so that only one of these stamps was required. Which seems to make more practical sense in such a case?
Other forms of etiquette were also used: ‘ОПЛАЧЕНО' (full fee paid), ‘НОВА ЦІНА' (New Price), and various manuscript text.
Domestic Regular Commercial Mail Posted March 5th 1996, Cities of Kyiv to Rivne
It wasn’t just USSR stamps that were revalued. The nation eventually revalued its own national definitives starting August 1994, once original face values became near-meaningless as the result of the hyperinflation that ravaged Ukraine at this time.
The required in·era fee for this quality of mail was 5000Krb. Yet, the front of this cover only shows a total 5Krb mixed franking. However, at the time, Ukraine had already revalued the 2Krb to 2000Krb through national decree. (It also did this in stages with thirteen other definitives. See Journal 118, ©2017.) What about the other required 3000Krb? Is it possible that the 3Krb commemorative accounts for this through local revaluation? Not only is it possible, but it is logical given precedent-established prior acts starting 1992 as outlined in genre catalogues, and summarized by Lobko as earlier noted. This genre type of mail continues to be accumulated empirically. ‘The logic of evidence-based data accumulation.’
While I won’t have this exhibit cover highlighted for the same reasons noted earlier, it otherwise would be, especially since I have another such cover, but franked with the series commemorative 5Krb Kyiv stamp rather than the series Lviv stamp shown on this example.
Non·CIS Registered Airmail Posted February 17th 1994, Ukraine (Chernivtsi) to Canada
Cover, front and reverse cancels, and the manuscript-altered stamps.
Further to local revaluation, if you look closely at this beautiful cover and its area just below the left-side 1000Krb stamp, you will see a pair of partially-obscured 5Krb stamps that have been locally manuscript revalued to 3,000Krb each as part of the total mixed franking 9,522Krb.
Reviewing all of the published material including Anholenko catalogues, and even watching out on-line (eBay, delcampe, etc.), it is clear that fewer than five genre covers are currently reported with manuscript-altered Ukraine stamps. This cover was given to me by Alex Luhowy during a year·2017 trip to our zustrich. Having friends, and of course those who know and appreciate the depth of my exhibiting interest! By the way, my exhibit shows another such cover mailed on the same day, but to the Canadian province of Saskatchewan rather than Manitoba. Both are prominently highlighted in the exhibit.
Local City of Chernihiv Registered Mail February 9th 1995, Courthouse-to-Courthouse Mail
This cover represents a very special reminder about the ‘postal history’ of local revaluation. How so? While the Chernihiv Oblast like-named District were delivered a set of surcharges during April, a decision was made to wait for almost six months before releasing the set, in order to coincide with the oblast 1300th anniversary, This was a quaint idea, but …
The result saw set use start during later time of increased inflation. This intentionally delayed release saw set stamp surcharge values more quickly lose ‘meaning’, rapid mail fee increases trying to keep pace with effect of economic hyperinflation. So, what to do with the many set stamps that shortly later became near-useless?
Again, to the ‘logic of evidence-based data accumulation’ as noted earlier, we can say that the local post office simply revalued surcharges, ie- revaluing stamps that had already earlier been revalued through surcharge! However, this time they did it ‘blindly’ such as in the case of the prior Lviv commemorative example, that is, without any on-cover note to this act.
While the wet stamp and the red stationery image on this cover are simply ignored due to hyperinflationary irrelevance, the 900Krb utilitarian is matched with the 1Krb surcharge that has now been locally revalued to 100Krb in order to meet the required in·era 1000Krb fee. Yes, to some who demand documentation no matter what during the ‘murkiness’ of these postal times, this may be a ‘leap of faith’ or a ‘stretch’. Nevertheless, it is indeed based upon past precedent (as noted earlier) such that despite no formal documentation, we can indeed assert such an understanding for this judicial mail, ie. court house to court house mail.
By the way, this cover made for a great ‘bridge’ from the local revalues section of my exhibit into finally looking at each oblast, ‘aye-to zed’.
Domestic Registered Commercial Reply Card
Posted February 16th 1994, Cities of Chernihiv to Dmitrivka
We see a 200Krb Chernihiv utilitarian on ‘reply card’ (delivery notice) in ‘stand alone’ fashion. Significance? There are currently less than five reported utilitarian-bearing reply card examples. Given their nature, all reply cards were commercial. If not staying within Ukraine, franking on these post cards was honoured by the CIS nation that it was delivered to. They were affixed onto packages at the post office.
Quantity: 64 complete subset pairs (from 17,000 singles total); This is a ‘subset’ because there are four other USSR platform stamps surcharged like this, varying quantities per subset.
The surcharges are se-tenant paired in two locations, positions 84-85, and 86-87 such as these. Every other stamp position on the sheet is surcharged as the second lifted overprint image.
With this cover and above mint pair, you see two of the total sixty-four such minted se-tenant combinations. The 100Krb franking met the in·era requirement for this quality of mail.
Domestic Regular Mail Posted November 23rd 1994, Cities of Vyzhnytsia to Chernivtsi
Look at the surcharge overprint of the first stamp on the cover. It is shifted up like the first lifted surcharge image rather than properly centred. This is currently the only reported cover with 100Krb ‘surcharge shifted up’. As to mint singles of this shift, I wrote a journal article some time ago and reported that one Andrew Baines of Great Britain had a grouping.
Domestic Registered Commercial Package Posted March 11th 1994,
Cities of Sevastopil to Kryvyi·Rih
This overage cover measures 9½-by-7-inches, and is commercial mail. (A standard cover measures up to 6⅜-by-4½-inches and up to 20-grams.) Its mixed franking includes two full strips-of-six 25Krb columns of the Sevastopil utilitarians (6-by-8 sheet arrangements) from a set-of-21 issued by the city August 6th to early December 1993 for use in its metro area. The franking payment total of 2750Krb was determined by a dedicated package/packet fees schedule (‘БАНДЕРОЛЬ', pronounced ‘BANDEROL’).
Even though the front cancel dates can be read, they are of poor quality, and so I provide one of the better reverse receiving cancels as dated back-up. Mail from Sevastopil to Krivyi·Rih.
(PS- Remember, almost all utilitarians were ungummed and one colour.)
City of Dnipropetrovsk PO·57 ‘Taxe∙Perçue Stamp’
Non·CIS Regular Airmail Posted February 19th 1992, Ukraine to USA
Use on February 19th 1992 of this manuscripted 4.55Krb taxe-perçue stamp predates the earliest catalogued counterpart (March·1992, Voronizh, Volyn·Oblast), thus setting a new standard. This is a cover with the earliest reported TP stamp to date. By the way, long-time society members will recognise the address as going from Dnipropetrovsk to the Baptist Ministry of the Bylen family near Chicago. Via eBay, thank-you Peter, a very meaningful cover!
City of Donetsk: Domestic Regular Commercial Reply Card
Posted October 26th 1994, Cities of Donetsk to Kryvyi·Rih and Back
An earlier Chernihiv statement noted that there are currently less than five reported utilitarian-bearing reply card examples. Here is another one out of Donetsk. Reply cards are great because they were ultimately completed and affixed onto the primary mail at the post office. Yet for me, there was an extra ‘bonus’. The genre ‘go-to catalogues’ Lobko·2 ©2000 did not have these violet issues listed, only black, but the updated version Lobko·3 ©2007 did. When I saw this piece on the internet, it verified for me violet legitimacy, and I acquired it November 2024.
Above is the reply card, and below are its in-transit cancels. It was processed and sent from the post office in the city of Donetsk on October 26th 1994, and received by this Kryvyi·Rih post office the 29th. The third cancel is very poor, but it shows the mail having been delivered to the recipient by Kryvyi·Rih PO·57. Shortly afterward, the reply card was then sent back to Donetsk and received on November 5th for the original mailer, thus verifying for them that the ‘parcel’ was indeed received. Now that is ‘postal history’! Pretty cool, hey?!
CIS Registered Commercial Overage Mail Posted January 24th 1992,
‘81-to-100-Gram Category’; Cities of Kharkiv (PO·3 Cancel) to Tashkent·Uzbekistan
This overage cover was about 13-by-9-inches before being trimmed at its left by the recipient when opening it up. It is outstanding as international CIS nation mail posted the first day these stamps were issued, from a set that was in circulation for less than one week!
The first report about this cover that I saw was in a brief mid-1990s society Journal article by Peter Bylen, and so its existence has been known for some time. After I acquired it, this cover was put into my provisionals exhibit during 2017. Former Journal editor et-al Val Zabijaka saw it and mentioned that one other is said to exist.
The set of eight was completed on various paper with in·era face values that either met then-current postal fees, helped uprate existing USSR remainders, or that were used in multiples. As you can see, the front cancel is not the greatest, but you can indeed tell well enough the date and that it was out of city PO·3.
The set was withdrawn after four days and five nights after issue, really because of public peer pressure due to their ‘quality’. While available, only 3.9% of the set was sold, and of this, only 0.47% to the general public (ie- private sector) rather than commercial enterprises. Thus, being about ‘one-in-nine’, this is one of the few cases where properly completed private mail is far more desirable than commercial.
This ‘Domestic Regular Mail Posted January 28th 1992, Cities of Kharkiv to Dnipropetrovsk’ that follows is one such private mailing, on the last full day of the 28th that the set was in post-office circulation as seen by the enhanced cancel, at the 24th hour.
City of Kharkiv: ‘Cash Register Receipt’ (CRR) Utilitarian Stamps on Non·CIS Mail
A few years ago, society treasurer Martin Tatuch and I started a study about mail with CRRs that was sent abroad. My interest was that postal authorities were generally ‘resistant’ at using most utilitarians on international mail, both CIS and especially non·CIS mail. Thus logic dictated that such covers with CRRs on them, local stamps where use was by any given post office in small or large centres, and all unannounced as a new stamp, were quite an ‘extreme’.
Here is a cover, ‘CRR-Franked Non·CIS Regular Commercial Airmail Posted October 21st 1994, Cities of Kharkiv to Ottawa·Canada’, addressed in the French language. You can also see that the CRR stamp is cancelled with a city PO·3 cancel, like an earlier cover but now with a Ukraine cancel rather than a USSR remainder. Reading the Lobko·3 year·2007 specialised genre catalogue, you will see that only eight of ≈230 genre CRRs are annulled with Ukraine cancel rather than a USSR remainder cancel. This cover out of PO·3 is not listed in Lobko·3.
The 8000Krb value of the cover stamp for the payment of this quality mail is verified by the manuscript taxe·perçue to the upper-right.
I also exhibit one other such cover, city of Kharkiv PO∙100, posted a bit earlier on June 9th 1994 to Downsview, a suburb of Toronto, Canada. What is also so outstanding is that I came by these covers as ‘diamonds in the rough’. Canadian venues rarely have this type of material, but luckily enough a couple did. The cover profiled here was acquired at a North Toronto Stamp Club’ bourse, while the other cover came by way of ‘West Toronto Stamp Club’ President Sid Mensinga who found it in a lot of material that the club was given, and who knew about my exhibiting interest.
Finally, of only four non·CIS CRR covers currently reported, I exhibit two. (Martin Tatuch has a few international CIS covers as well.) Fellow society member, do you have any such non-CIS covers? If so, please let us know so that we improve our ‘bank of knowledge’.
City of Kyiv·MPO: Fifth ‘Generation’ Utilitarian Stamp
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This was the final ‘version’ of unannounced stamps that were internally used by the city of Kyiv’s MPO. I was given this by our USA VP and current Journal editor Roman Procyk after completing lotting for him at one of our past zustriches. And later, Alex Luhowy saw this, noting that the reverse language was in Ukrainian rather than russian, from the city of Stryi. Use of Ukrainian language Lviv·Oblast form in Kyiv showed improved national postal cohesiveness.
That these stamps bore the value ‘999’ is not unusual at all. These utilitarians were only able to accommodate three digits, and so this was post office practice actually being 1000.
This was an adjustable-value stamp. The reverse glue lets us know that this was a stamp most likely applied to a package, probably with other stamps. The b+w image shows the stamp itself lifted off the paper, comprised both of the utilitarian image partnered with a dated cancel. This partnering was actually a pretty interesting feature of these stamps, since aside from showing the date of postal use, it accommodated self-cancellation when multiples were applied such as in this case. Most importantly to exhibiting as a highlighted item, this is the earliest reported date for use, July 7th 1994. It may in fact be the first day of use, though more research is required on this.
Non·CIS Regular Airmail Posted December 24th 1993,
Cities of Kyiv to Winnipeg·Canada; Mixed Franking 2,700Krb
Isn’t this cover beautiful?! If it is not enough that its special features include utilitarian stamps of this quality used for non·CIS mail, how about the additional fact that the franking includes a ‘large gutter block of four’ on the reverse? To the latter, just amazing! (Various sized smaller gutter arrangements are more common on the two-by-ten strips that were publicly sold.) By the way, we see here use of ‘horse glue’, which is organic and biodegradable and that thus affects stamps over time compared to the alternative.
Non·CIS Registered Airmail Posted December 8th 1992,
Cities of Kyiv to Caracal·Romania; Mixed Franking 45Krb
Very very occasionally, the rotary press that surcharged USSR remainder stamps slipped a bit, the result being what is shown above, but only for the top two or three rows until it realigned. This affect is lovingly nick-named a ‘ghost print’, a fainter secondary image included on the stamp that is usually displaced about 0.75mm. With less than five such Kyiv covers currently reported, another with a 3Krb ghost print is shown in my exhibit that goes to Cicero (suburban Chicago) USA.
The random nature of slippage makes it impossible to specifically quantify the minimal numbers available, though given sheets availability amongst known collectors and those I have seen on line, it can be said with certainty that covers bearing such stamps are as rare as ‘healthy salo’ without a shot of horilka.
City of Kyiv·MPO: Kopiyok Denominated Set for Uprating or as Supplementals;
Set-of-Five Posthorn Icon Stamps, issued ≈May 10th 1992
This set was sold by post offices in strips-of-ten per value, five values total (60-75-95-96-130k). Once in a while, the strips were completed in a narrow manner where the usual 21-by-26mm image was skinnier, specifically the 95k value such that there are two varieties, narrow and regular. Examining complete narrow strips shows an interesting variety of skinniness. Some strips started regular on the left but progressively narrowed as going to the right, other strips outright narrow right from the start. And then there is the se-tenant pair example shown here. This is the only such pair that I have ever seen. It is accompanied by a cover bearing a narrow field variety in mixed franking to the required in·era total 1.50Krb for this quality of mail.
The special nature of this cover is in its franking including a ‘narrow image’ variety of this stamp. Very obscure! Of additional interest is that the Kyiv stamp was honoured by a non-origin oblast post office, as it is domestic registered mail June 7th 1992, used in the cities of Lviv and mailed to Lutsk.
Kyiv·Oblast: City of Boiarka·MPO ‘Three Value Set∙of∙Four’ First Set Utilitarians
Cover: Domestic Regular Mail Posted November 19th 1993, Cities of Boiarka to Kyiv
Boiarka is more or less a suburb of Kyiv today. This city issued some utilitarians as well, amongst which was their first set titled above, and as appearing as follows.
This set was printed with an oily kind of ink that seems to usually have bled through the platform paper. As you can see, there are two varieties of 27Krb. According to Lobko·3, the ‘straight frame’ variety is far more obscure, up to four times so compared to the alternative.
Thus, covers with the 27Krb ‘serrated frame’ variety are far more common than a cover such as that shown here, with the ‘straight frame’ 27Krb stamp.
City of Kyiv·MPO ‘Highest Values Utilitarians’:
Non·CIS Registered Airmail Posted January 28th 1994, Cities of Kyiv to Winnipeg·Canada
The five values to this set included 1000-2222-3000-5000-10000Krb stamps, printed on the thinnest paper used in Kyiv, at 0.55mm thickness.
This is non·CIS mail, again, spectacular in itself, but further so in bearing a 10000Krb ‘highest values’ utilitarians set pair on its reverse. The coupon text within the glue to the reverse-right and the red ‘Cleared Customs’ roller cancel on the front indicates that this cover was partnered with a package. The total 26,740Krb mixed franking indicates payment for a package of about 300·grams.
The cover is so full of crucial indications that it is hard to clearly see the sending and registry-receiving cancels. So here, they are lifted and enhanced for your viewing, respectively dated January 28th 1994 and February 12th 1994. Knowing about my exhibiting efforts, this is another of the covers that was given to me by society member Alex Luhowy while we were on our way to one of our past zustriches. What a beautiful thing!
Lviv·Oblast Set-of-26 Surcharges; Ten Inverts
As we now move out of Kyiv and into Lviv, this is an oblast that teamed up with Chernihiv and Kyiv to produce sets called the ‘KLCs’, the Kyiv-Lviv-Chernihiv surcharges. While Kyiv had eleven values with 34 set stamps due to variety, and Chernihiv had only three values with 13 stamps due to variety, this Lviv set saw ten surcharge values with 26 stamps due to variety. (Reference to variety is before considering inverts.)
You see here a mint Lviv inverts set of all ten revalues, though there are additional varieties. However, what is so interesting about this group is that it includes one very special variety. The sheets of the higher value stamps 10-to-50Krb included two of 100 stamps with values shifted left. We have one in this group, the 50Krb surcharge where while normally the ‘5’ is almost completely under the beginning of the shield, this stamp’s is considerably shifted left. While there were only 3,852 of this stamp initially issued, one can only guess as to how many were inverted. History has seemed to show a very general pattern of 1-in-11 for inverts, and so a ‘best guess’ might be that there were 350 upon issue. Really though, who knows how many times a sheet was actually ‘accidentally’ overprinted this way? Note→ Beware of forgeries!
Double Variety Sheet Lviv 0.50Krb Surcharge
I also highlight a 50k surcharged sheet as very special. The overprint plate for this value saw use around 16000 times, the most of all KLC plates. It is understandable then that it experienced more wear and tear. So, what are the two varieties that make this sheet so special?
First, this sheet shows ‘the blob’ at stamp position’s 67 and companion ‘Ukrainian freckle’ at 68, illustrated by the b+w scan. These are constant position flaws, not temporary such as when some airborn lint might land for a moment until washed away. It is interesting to see the blob as overprinted above the horn of its platform 1k ‘Post Rider’ figure, because it rather looks like smoke coming out of the horn that the post rider carries. Second, this sheet is a ‘ghost print’, as earlier described for a couple of Kyiv covers. You can see the secondary image on the sheet’s strip-of-four from its upper-left, moreso with the strip selvage magnified larger.
Seven-Value ‘Set-of-Eight’ Utilitarians: Non·CIS Regular Airmail December 20th 1992,
Cities of Novopetrivs'ke to Niagara·Falls, Canada
This set was released by the city of Mykolaiv some time in August·1992 for use within their post offices, values 1-2-3-4-5·lower-5·higher-10-14Krb. However, here is a cover that includes set franking used in another city.
This is another non·CIS cover, again most unusual to see utilitarians used for this mail stream. Yet in addition to this, it includes a set pair that was honoured for mail by a non-origin city, Novopetrivs'ke which is about 25km north of Mykolaiv, though still in Mykolaiv·Oblast. As a side note, look at the central pencil writing where the apparatchik postal clerk verified the in·era fee for this quality of mail as 25·Rubles.
City of Mykolaiv: Thirteen-Value ‘Set-of-17’ Utilitarians; Issued January↔April 1993
The city of Mykolaiv sets were printed using a variety of paper types. This set is a good example of that. A complete set of these issues only included twelve values in Lobko·2 (©2000). However, the updated Lobko·3 (©2007) catalogue added a 5Krb stamp. No wonder it stayed ‘hidden’ until then, as it was available for just two weeks at only one post office. The going cost for this stamp is substantially more than all other set stamps, even three times more than that for the 500Krb value. And, the attempted purchase (if available) for a cover so franked is listed as ‘ЦД’, short for ‘Ціна Договорная’ (‘Tsina Dohovornya’) meaning ‘Negotiable Price’. I wish good luck in such negotiations, given that I have never seen such a cover.
It took me a long time to come up with a 5Krb single. Given its platform paper, I have often wondered if this value was a remnant left-over from an earlier set, but with an altered frame.
City of Mykolaiv: Surcharge ‘Strips of Ten’ and ‘Sheet of Fifty’ Issued February 1993;
Non·CIS USA-Stream Registered Airmail Posted April 22nd 1993,
Cities of Mykolaiv to Washington·DC USA
The city completed two surcharged sets, one on a number of USSR definitive panes, and the other on a commemorative pane of fifty stamps. Inverts and other varieties exist. The two types are shown on the this cover.
Some society members will recognise this mail as posted to the company of former member Don Wynnyczok, God rest his soul. Don sold it to me for $1USD at one of our past zustriches. In other words, he basically gave it to me, knowing my exhibiting interest.
The outstanding nature about this cover is that the mixed franking met an in·era fee of 115Krb that was based on a separate non·CIS·USA tariff section that existed over two tariffs. While you have to wonder why they separated USA from all the other non-CIS nations, this USA quality mail stream only lasted eight months before returning USA into the non·CIS category.
City of Mykolaiv: Red-Ink Twenty-One Value Set∙of∙27 Utilitarians:
Non·CIS Commercial Registered Airmail April 25th 1994, Cities of Mykolaiv to Victoria, Canada
Yet another outstanding non-CIS cover mailed utilitarians, the brand that were red-inked in an attempt to better dissuade forgeries rather than carrying on with black ink. Values: 1-2-2 on blue coupon-8-8 on blue coupon-9-10-12-14-15 on blue coupon-26-27-27 on three different coupons red green blue-38-50 numeral left-50 numeral right-70-75-100-150-250-500-1000-2000-5000Krb.
Already special as non·CIS mail with utilitarians, it is moreso as ‘commercial’. The recipient is known from other covers to this same address as the in·era proprietor of ‘Victoria Products’. The total mixed franking of 9,500Krb has been rounded by the post office from 9,457Krb, the equivalent of about 70¢USD at that time.
District of Mykolaiv Two ‘Laser Printed’ Utilitarian Sets:
Domestic Registered Mail Posted September 9th 1993, Cities of Kryvyi·Balka to Kyiv
This district issued these two sets during March and April 1993. Perhaps hard to imagine, but laser printing is ‘dry ink application’. Values: first set 2-15Krb; second set 2-5-10-15-50-100Krb.
This cover was mailed the last day of a tariff, and so the front and reverse cancels are provided to ensure this for you. The special nature of this cover involves it having this 2Krb utilitarian as part of its mixed franking to 18Krb. The ‘tall box’ 2Krb was commonly used for only 9 months compared to the ‘wide box’ configuration at 1½ years. Try to find a cover with either the 2 or 15Krb first set tall box type. For you adventurous philatelists, check it out in our society website ‘Provisional 1990s Genre Comparison Table’.
City of Odesa PO·111 Postage·Due Manuscript Surcharge Stamp:
Domestic Registered Mail Posted January 27th 1993, Cities of Zaporizhzhia to Odesa
The special nature of this cover has already been well documented in society Journal·124 ©2020. To summarize, the initial 5Krb franking was short of the required in·era 6Krb fee for this quality of mail. Thus a 1Krb manuscript ‘postage due stamp’ (seen as ‘1руб') was applied after reception at PO·111, initialed by the observant postal clerk, and overridden by ‘Odesa Postage Due’ (‘Одесса Доплатить') cyrillic etiquette. Most importantly, it is the only reported genre ‘postage due’ cover.
Rivne Oblast ‘Long Utilitarians’ Set-of-Eighteen: Non·CIS ‘Package/Packet’:
Commercial Surface Mail August 28th 1994, Cities of Rivne to Winnipeg Canada
This oblast issued three sets of mimeographed utilitarians featuring violet and red ‘ink’. The long utilitarians set is so-named because of their somewhat exaggerated length in comparison to height, faces dimensions being 40-to-48mm-by-16-to-20½mm. These stamps are so ‘fundamental’ (some would say amateurish) in appearance that it is amazing any were used on non·CIS mail, particularily given Ukrainian reluctance about so using utilitarians to begin with. However, I suppose ‘business reigns supreme’.
This ‘self-made’ overage cover measures 9¼-by-8¾ inches. When getting this it prepared for exhibiting, I had to be very very careful since its paper is so extremely ‘brittle’.
Its special nature is as commercial and that took the long road in being surface mail rather than airmail. In addition to this, it is Package/Packet mail (‘Бандероль' ettiquette) that was received in Canada damaged, indicated by applied etiquette that is then initialed by the postal clerk in Canada for verification. It’s somewhat of a transitional cover since it has mixed franking, two long utilitarians, and one small format utilitarian from a following set. Most importantly, the two long utilitarians include a previously unreported 44-by-16mm size variation. Another masterpiece and precious gem courtesy of society member Alex Luhowy.
Rivne Oblast: Small Format Utilitarians’ Violet-Inked Set∙of∙Sixteen;
Non·CIS Commercial Regular Airmail December 27th 1993, Cities of Ostroh to Los·Angeles USA
This set was issued in two stages, and consists of the following: September 10th, 9-10-24-27-36-50-54-72-100-150-200-400Krb; December 6th, 12-65-73-91Krb. Image ≈21½-by-20mm.
While I do not want to diminish ‘the meaning’ of my highlighting, the next cover may be special enough to warrant this. However, I have yet to decide because the prior cover is already highlighted, and, as noted earlier, too much highlighting can be ‘self-defeating’ despite the near-importance of this cover nature. At any rate, …
Rivne covers with long utilitarians and the small formats are fairly common. However, here we see commercial mail to a USA governmental institution, a ‘Green Card’ application, non·USA citizens seeking permanent USA status. Mid-1992 to end-1993 saw many such mailed green card applications, but given the evidence of known cover accumulations, very very few with utilitarian stamps. This may be the only that would be herein reported to date, its special quality in being mail to a foreign government institution with utilitarians franking (rather than national issues), to the required in-era 2,530Krb in mixed franking setting.
By the way, the return address is a street in a small city called Ostroh, southeast Rivne·Oblast bordering Khmelnytskyi·Oblast. However, the cancel is of the oblast capital city Rivne, and so it looks like the mailer may have had to go to ‘the big city’ where they likely had an enterprise that helped with such applications. Postal history!
For this cover, I give my thanks to society member Paul Spiwak, who, knowing my exhibiting interest, was willing to give me this cover.
City of Sumy·MPO Single Taxe∙Perçue Utilitarian Stamp
and Non·CIS Surface Mail Posted April 8th 1992, Cities of Sumy to Istanbul, Türkiye
This 25-by-25mm stamp was issued in a 2-by-2 sheetlet format February 1992 by the MPO for self use, black image photocopied onto 0.09-0.10mm thick white paper. While the precise issue day is not listed, I have one cover dated February 4th.
While Lobko·3 puts a value on used stamps, there is no price indication for mint, meaning that mint versions were not available. However, I acquired two Sumy utilitarian items from society member Peter Bylen eight or ten years ago, one being a mint stamp. Peter and I were exchanging e-mail messages at the time, and he told me that he acquired it by simply putting a bill in an envelope and mailing it from USA to the Sumy post office, hoping for the best but with no great expectations. Yet a while later, he received a mint single in the mail. A great story!
As to the cover shown, I do not highlight the one I got from Peter, though it is part of the exhibit. Instead, this one is highlighted, acquired through eBay from Seref Bornovali of Loveland (Cincinnati). Seref, who has been a philatelic judge, mentioned to me he knew he had something here that was very different. This is non·CIS regular surface mail, and to an uncommon destination for stamps of this quality.
City of Zaporizhzhia MPO Four-Value Surcharges Set
CIS Surface Mail Posted December 22nd 1993, Cities of Zaporizhzhia to St·Petersburg Russia
The values for this set were 10-20-30-50Krb. The 10Krb surcharge was overprinted on a USSR 4k commemorative, and the other three on USSR definitives, 20-on-3k, 30-on-1k, and 50-on-1k.
This cover bears a 50Krb strip-of-five, positions 6-to-10 with a position-10 invert for the required in·era franking of 250Krb for this quality of mail. The rarity of the right-end strip-of-five invert surcharge on cover is what makes this special and coveted. Finally, the poorly inked front/origin cancel is supported by the date on a far better inked reverse/destination cancel.
Conclusion
To build our society’s bank of knowledge, please report any special material you may have.